A guide to third sector trading - WCVA

It’s an idea, but is it business? A guide to third sector trading
1: Getting
started
2: First steps 3: Business
planning
4: Legal and
governance
5: Funding
and
resourcing
6: Financial
controls
7: Managing
growth
8: Management
and
governance
9: Social
enterprise
10: Sources
of support
• Projects for people with disabilities: Council social service
departments have often been happy to contract with
development trusts and other charitable and community groups
to deliver projects which provide social and employment
opportunities for people with physical and learning disabilities.
• Childcare: A few years ago some community groups were
developing nurseries for pre-school age children. The market
has declined since schools started to provide nurseries for threeand
four-year-olds, and the third sector is in competition with
private nurseries. Efforts to run fee-charging after-school clubs
as self-supporting enterprises are proving problematic.
Services abandoned by the private sector: Classic examples
are village shops and post offices. Rural transport schemes,
petrol stations and pubs are sometimes seen in the same light.
For example:
• The community in Llanbadarn in Powys, conveniently located
on a main north-south trunk route through central Wales runs a
shop, post office and petrol station which they took over when a
private business closed.
• The Blaengwynfi Community Co-operative took over the
running of the local grocery store in the remote Neath Port
Talbot village of Blaenllynfi in the 1980s when the Co-operative
Wholesale Society pulled out. The shop is still open and plays a
major part in community life.
Community recreation and leisure:
• Cwmaman Institute near Aberdare in Rhondda Cynon Taff is one
of the largest of many older community buildings which have
been adapted to accommodate gyms, cinemas and theatres and
other income generating activities.
• The Tonmawr 2000 gymnasium in the isolated village of
Tonmawr near Neath is an unusual example of a purpose-built
resource which was established using Welsh Office funding in
the early 1990s. The challenge of sustainability was addressed
by using rental income from letting adjoining unit factories.
Environmental and alternative technology projects:
Successful initiatives – Ecodyfi’s wind farm projects, Dinas
Mawddwy community biomass heating, Talybont-on-Usk
community hydro scheme – are spreading rapidly throughout
Wales and some are successfully generating income.
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